This invention relates to an article for catching and hurling a hard playing object such as a ball against a playing surface, and more particularly, to a plastic cesta which is used with a hard ball called a pelota, in a game called jai alia.
Jai alai is a game in which the ball is rock hard and about the size of a baseball, or about 21/2 inches in diameter, weighing approximately 4.5 ounces. Prior cestas have been curved wicker baskets which in effect are an extension of the player's arm. The cestas weigh between 15 and 20 ounces and the frame is made of steam bent chestnut with form-shaping ribs planed down to 1/16th of an inch thick and one inch wide. Reed is woven over the frame and the ribs. A leather glove is sewn to the outside of the cesta and after the player inserts his hand in the glove a cloth tape is wound around the glove to prevent the cesta from slipping free during play.
Wicker cestas take considerable punishment. It is not unusual for a ball to be travelling at a bullet-like speed of approximately 150 miles per hour and the resultant wear and tear on the cesta is readily obvious. It is not believed uncommon for a professional jai alai player to wear out 15 to 20 cestas a year, and most frontons, where the game is played, employ a full time repair man and a full time basket weaver. Attempts have been made to spray a film of plastic on the cesta to prevent the rapid wear and tear on the reeds. This has only been moderately successful.
The growth of jai alai has been inhibited to some extent among amateur jai alai players because of the expense of wicker basket cestas. In some instances cestas run on the order of approximately $200. It has come to the point that amateur jai alai sportsmen eagerly seek to purchase the used cestas cast off by the professional players which are sold at prices substantially less than new cestas.
One of the obvious solutions to the problem of enlarging the amateur jai alai population is to offer them a low cost and mass produced cesta which will closely perform to the professional type wicker basket cesta when used with the game's regulation ball. There have been a number of attempts to mass produce low cost plastic cestas but they have proved unsuccessful. The reasons for the lack of success have been brought about in some measure by the extreme hardness of the ball and the tremendous speeds at which the ball travels. The cesta must be sufficiently resilient or soft to catch the ball without fracturing, and yet it must be sufficiently hard or rigid in order that the player may skillfully manipulate the cesta in a manner to give direction and accuracy to the ball in its flight during play. Some prior cestas have tried to achieve the desired resiliency by making the body of the plastic cesta resilient but then had to utilize stiffners because the cesta in play would tend to twist or warp and otherwise be impractical in play. On the other hand, some plastic cestas were made hard and rigid but then it was found that it was difficult to catch and hold the ball because it would bounce out of the cesta on impact. To correct this problem some cestas would be provided with soft resilient material at those portions which caught the ball but this presented other problems and was not completely satisfactory. Another difficulty with plastic cestas which were too rigid were that they could not withstand the impact of the high velocity ball without fracturing or shattering. Generally, prior art cestas have been made by a vacuum forming process which requires a uniform thickness of the cesta, and this inherently poses difficulty in attaining the performance provided by the wicker basket cesta.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel, inexpensive, mass-produced all plastic cesta which closely simulates and approaches the performance of the professional type wicker basket cesta.
It is another object to provide a novel, inexpensive, mass-producing all plastic cesta wherein the ball catching or pocket portion has a flexibility which inhibits bouncing of the ball out of the cesta when caught at high speeds and other portions of the cesta have walls providing rigidity and strength to obviate twisting of the cesta so as to enhance the accuracy of the cesta in play.
A still further object is to provide a novel hand holding means of simple and effective construction for a cesta which effectively secures the player's hand to the cesta handle to greatly improve the accuracy and ease of the use of the cesta in the game of jai alai.